What are Virginia’s Exceptions to the Coming and Going Rule?

Do You Know the Rule?

What is the coming and going rule?

When an employee is injured on his way to or from work, the injury is not compensable because it is not considered to have occurred in the course of employment. 

What are the exceptions to the rule?

The exceptions to the coming and going rule in Virginia are:

1. Paid travel exception: In going to and from work the employer provides the means of transportation or pays for the employee’s travel time or includes it in his wages.
2. Threshold exception: The way used is the sole and exclusive way of ingress and egress with no other way, or where the way of ingress and egress is constructed by the employer.
3. Special errand exception: The employee on his way to or from work is still charged with some duty or task in connection with his employment.
4. Extension of premises exception: The injury occurred on a walkway or in a parking lot that is on the employer’s premises or so close to it that is considered an “extension of the employer’s premises.”

What are some things employers should investigate when a worker cites an exception?

For the special errand and paid travel exceptions, employers should investigate whether the worker was actually involved in the special errand or paid travel when he was injured, or whether he deviated from the course of employment to pursue a personal errand.

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For the threshold and extension of premises exceptions, employers should speak with witnesses or obtain video footage to verify where exactly the employee was injured and whether the employee was actively entering or exiting work at the time.

What are some case examples?

Where the claimant was being driven by the coworker to a worksite and they were struck by a drunk driver, his injuries were compensable because there was an implied contract that the company would transport the worker. Hercules Remodeling, LLC v. Moncho, No. 1024-24-4 (Va. Ct. App. 06/24/25, unpublished).

Because the public street where claimant was crossing when she was struck was not an extension of the employer's premises, her injury fell within the threshold exception. Washington v. Honeywell, Inc., No. 0467-17-2 (Va. Ct. App. 10/24/17).

A Pan Am employee who was returning from lunch when she slipped and fell on an icy walkway leading to the building where her employer maintained its offices sustained a compensable injury because her injury occurred in an area which was in practical effect a part of Pan Am's premises. Prince v. Pan American World Airways, No. 1017-87-2. (Va. 05/03/88).

The threshold exception applied where the employee was using the only available means of egress from the worksite when his car was struck by a locomotive. GATX Tank Erection Co. v. Gnewuch,  No. 791827 (Va. 11/26/80).

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